Kitchen Note: Upheaval

 

John and I live in a 1000 square foot house. It’s fine for two people, only one of those people has four wheelchairs (two regular powerchairs, one soccer chair, one manual chair). These take up much space, as does his standing frame. Still, we manage well enough, most of the time.

Our house was bank-owned, the prior owners having defaulted on the mortgage. The bank recarpeted with the cheapest stuff they could find. It’s beige, less than ideal for a wheelchair-user and people who are fond of cats. But carpets were not the first order of business when we moved in; making the bathroom wheelchair-accessible was.

Only now, six years later, are we able to deal with some of the flooring. Making a long story short, the fine folk at Home Depot customer service are jerking us around regarding the carpet delivery date. First they said the carpet would arrive on Monday. So I emptied out John’s study. Only because the house is small, there aren’t many places to pile his books. John is an engineer by profession and a history buff by avocation. These aren’t exactly Vintage paperbacks.

The house is a disaster area. The kitchen table is taken up by his computer. The tiny living room/photography studio currently boasts titles like Numerical Recipes, FORTRAN for Scientists and Engineers, and most terrifyingly, Introduction to Differential Equations. 

Alas, Monday came and went without carpet. Home Depot said Wednesday, which is today. Now they’re saying maybe the 15th, and the person who is installing the carpet–incidentally, not Home Depot– is over there complaining on our behalf.

Home Depot, you are making a wheelchair user’s life extremely difficult. Also his wife’s. This is not, to say the least, good customer service.

—

Having spent yesterday cooking, anticipating an even worse mess today–the furniture isn’t out of the room yet–ye gods and little fishes–we can talk about that, and this can actually sort of be about food, okay?

On a totally random side note, I have joined technological society and can be found on Instagram. It has become my personal Pokemon Go, making my walks a lot more fun, because now I can record exciting things like this:

and pretty things like this:

Right. Okay, so I cooked a lot yesterday.

With these gorgeous greens and some leftover baked potatoes, I made a favorite recipe from Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Grains And Greens, which I was certain I’d blogged about–Dragged Greens. I haven’t? (let’s not discuss my recordkeeping just now.) Hmm.

You know all the scary things the phone can do to images. Purty, eh?

These artichokes will forever be associated with listening to Republican Susan Collins of Maine be interviewed on National Public Radio. I made them Julia Child style: white wine, carrot, garlic, onion, some lemon. No celery, as I had none.

Then I made some steak–dinner for tonight, when I assumed the house would be a shambles of freshly laid carpet and busy workmen. Silly me. By then the fog was rolling in, it was time to make the evening meal, and I was pretty wiped.

Soy sauce, red wine, garlic, olive oil. Seared stovetop, finished in a 225 degree oven.

Believe me–I know how trivial complaints over late carpeting and a disordered home are. I have a home to be disordered, rooms to carpet, money to even consider such luxuries. I know this.

Actual recipes sooner rather than later, as it seems said carpet–plain office carpet, nothing fancy–is being woven in a faraway land before being shipped, via blindfolded donkey, down the steepest of crumbling chalk cliffs.

Thank you so much for reading. May your day involve no box stores.